Wildfire Mitigation Funding Available for Private Landowners in Chaffee and Lake Counties
The National Forest Foundation (NFF) is soliciting applications from private landowners in Chaffee and Lake Counties who are interested in funding assistance to support wildfire mitigation activities, including mechanical forest thinning and other activities that would reduce the risk of high severity wildfire.
This work is made possible by a federal Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which the NFF and many partners, including Envision Chaffee County, Colorado State Forest Service, and others, secured late last year.
Through this grant program, the NRCS supports public-private partnerships to fund and implement solutions to natural resource challenges throughout the country. The RCPP funding is being matched locally by Chaffee Common Ground funding and other federal, state, and private sources.
The RCPP funds will be directed over the next four years to support the implementation of the Community Wildfire Protection Plans in Chaffee and Lake Counties.
Both Chaffee and Lake County use forest modeling tools provided by the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute to identify areas in each county where the benefit of forest thinning and prescribed fire would most effectively protect the broadest range of community values.
The NFF will be accepting applications on a rolling basis to identify an initial set of landowners interested in participating in the program. Applicants will be evaluated and selected based on criteria that will maximize the effectiveness of the forest thinning and available funding and forester capacity.
Additionally, the RCPP program is one of several funding sources supporting local wildfire mitigation efforts, so applicants who do not meet the RCPP criteria may have other opportunities to partner with the NFF to complete work on their land.
